Friday, September 26, 2008
The thrill is gone
By Edward Copeland
As one of the girls is depressed in the big screen followup to Sex and the City, she asks one of her friends if she'll ever laugh again. I knew exactly how she felt as there is little humor to be found in this overlong and unnecessary spinoff from the great HBO series.
I'm always a little trepidatious when a TV show turns out a film version. (It's a miracle that as many of the Star Trek films turned out as well as they did.) Especially when the absence has been as short as this series' has been, they better have a damn good reason for a movie version, especially one that transforms what was essentially a half-hour comedy with pathos into nearly 2 and a half-hours of gloom.
The performers all slip quite easily back into their characters but it's the script by writer-director Michael Patrick King that lets them down. While the HBO series had a rocky first season, it grew to be one of my favorites, deftly blending all forms of comedy with pathos about all sorts of relationships.
While the ending wasn't perfect, it was satisfying enough in coming up with pseudo-endings for Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte. There really seems to be no point for the movie. Its stories weren't burning to be told, which may be why the most refreshing parts of the movie belong to Jennifer Hudson as Carrie's personal assistant.
It's good to see the girls again and it's always great to see New York filmed with so much love, but there's no reason this film needed to be made.
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Labels: 00s, HBO, Television
